Best Places to Visit in Maryland, West to East

Maryland is 250 miles wide and, in one spot near Hancock, less than two miles tall. That shape does something unusual. Drive the length of it, and you pass through Appalachian forest, farm country, two cities, tidal marsh, and open ocean, in that order.

So the best places to visit in Maryland are best understood as a sequence rather than a list. This runs from the western tip to the Atlantic, in the order you would meet them.

Garrett County and the Far West

Three hours west of the Beltway, the mountains surprise people who think of Maryland as a coastal state. Elevation here passes 3,000 feet, and snow falls seriously enough to support a ski season.

Among the best things to do in Maryland at this end of the state:

• Walk the one-mile loop at Swallow Falls State Park to Muddy Creek Falls, the tallest free-falling waterfall in the state at around 50 feet, through old-growth hemlock.
• Swim, paddle, or ski at Deep Creek Lake, the largest lake in Maryland at roughly 3,900 acres.
• Pick up the C&O Canal towpath at Cumberland, where it begins its 184.5-mile run back to Georgetown on a flat grade.

Winter suits skiing, while October brings the strongest fall-color appeal; summer shifts the focus to the lake.

The Catoctins and Frederick County

An hour back east, the land flattens into orchards and battlefields. This is the part of the state most people pass on I-70 at speed, which is a mistake.

Antietam National Battlefield preserves the ground where the single bloodiest day in American military history unfolded in September 1862. The driving tour takes about ninety minutes, and the fields look much as they did.

North of Frederick, Cunningham Falls State Park adds a cascade, a lake, and the ridge that shelters Camp David somewhere out of sight.

The I-270 Corridor

Twenty miles north of the District, most visitors read this stretch as commuter territory and drive through. A few of the better hidden gems in Maryland sit here in plain view.

In Rockville, the 1815 Beall-Dawson House and the neo-classical Glenview Mansion sit a short walk apart, both free to enter. Brookside Gardens in Wheaton runs 50 acres of display gardens with no admission charge at all.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is buried in Rockville, at Saint Mary’s, under a line from the last page of Gatsby.

Baltimore and the Patapsco

Halfway across the state, the natural overnight stop rewards a full day rather than an hour. Fort McHenry sits where the national anthem was written during the 1814 bombardment. The seawall walk takes about twenty minutes end to end.

Within a few blocks of the water, Baltimore holds the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. The Walters Art Museum charges nothing to enter.

One note for longer itineraries. The state wraps around the District on three sides. Many visitors add a guided day through the capital at one end of the week.

Annapolis and the Bay

Forty minutes east of the harbor, the colonial street layout survives intact. Almost nowhere else in the country can claim that. The Maryland State House is the oldest state capitol still in legislative use. The United States Naval Academy opens its grounds to visitors carrying photo identification.

Cross the Bay Bridge from here, and the state changes character completely.

The Eastern Shore

Another forty miles east, the land turns flat and slow. For anyone weighing up the best weekend getaways in Maryland, this is the strongest case for staying overnight rather than turning back.

St. Michaels runs on boat traffic and always has. Its Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum holds a working shipyard and an 1879 lighthouse you can climb. Further south, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge protects tidal marsh that draws bald eagles in real numbers. A four-mile wildlife drive runs through it.

Near Church Creek, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center stands in the landscape where she was born and later led others north.

The Atlantic

Assateague Island closes the sequence at the opposite edge of the state from where it began. Wild horses roam the dunes freely, which reads like marketing until one crosses the road ahead of you. The island is split between a national seashore and a state park.

Late spring and early autumn bring fewer people and better temperatures than July, when Ocean City fills every weekend to capacity.

Fitting the Best Places to Visit in Maryland Into One Weekend

Two days will not cover the sequence above, and attempting it turns the whole thing into a driving exercise. Pick an end and commit to it.

Three pairings work better than any attempt at the full run:

• The mountains with Frederick County, which share a direction and a season
• The two cities together, since forty minutes separates them and neither needs a full day alone
• The Eastern Shore with the coast, which sit on the same road and reward one overnight between them

Two practical notes. The Bay Bridge carries every eastbound car in the region on summer Friday afternoons, and the queue regularly runs for hours. Leaving in the morning or after dinner avoids most of it.

State park entry runs a few dollars per vehicle, and several of the sites above charge nothing at all. Maryland is an unusually inexpensive state to explore, which is not something it advertises much.

The best places to visit in Maryland reward a return visit more than an attempt to cover everything at once. Pick one part of the state, give it the weekend, and save the next stretch for another trip.